A power consumption system may include a house region, industry region and so on which consumes power supplied by an electric power system. Consumption of the power by the power consumption system may be highest during peak hours as demand for power arises at such peak hours. Also, charges for power consumption during peak hours may be greater than charges of power consumption during non-peak hours. Demand charges could constitute up to 40% of electricity bills. Limiting the demand of power may reduce the demand charges and bring down cost of power.
One or more techniques are implemented for limiting the demand which includes consumers to use less power during peak hours. The techniques may include encouraging consumers to use less power during peak hours and moving the time of power consumption to non-peak hours such as night time and weekends. Also, one or more conventional systems are implemented for limiting demand of the power by controlling functioning and power consumption of loads associated with the power consumption systems.
One of the conventional systems discloses an electricity meter capable of limiting an electricity load. The electricity meter includes at least one load control and one or more predetermined time-of-use tiers. Each of the one or more predetermined time-of-use tiers has a corresponding time-of-use demand threshold. The method comprises determining a present time-of-use tier, determining a present time-of-use demand for the electricity load in the present time-of use tier and comparing the present time-of-use demand to the time-of-use demand threshold corresponding to the present time-of-use tier. Further, the method comprises setting the at least one load control to a de-energize mode when a de-energize condition is satisfied. The de-energize condition may include sub-conditions such as the present time-of-use demand exceeding the time-of-use demand threshold corresponding to the present time-of-use tier.
Another conventional system discloses a demand limit control system for maintaining power consumption of loads within a building below an upper demand limit. Here, the upper demand limit is separated from a lower demand limit by a deadband. Further, the demand limit control system provides a controller output signal when the power consumption is above the upper demand limit. Also, the system comprises a power demand controller for maintaining the power consumption. The demand limit control system maintains substantially constant power when power consumption is between the upper and lower demand limits and ramps down when the power consumption is below the lower demand limit. Further, each of a plurality of demand controlled loads are connected to the power demand controller and are responding to a different threshold value of the controller output signal. The plurality of demand controlled loads are conditioned to turn off when the controller output signal is above the threshold value and is conditioned to turn on when the controller output signal is below the threshold value.
Another conventional system discloses a method for managing an energy consuming load in a group of energy consuming loads and a method for managing the group of energy consuming loads. The method includes generating sets of load state data from the loads, making enablement state decisions for one or more loads using the sets of load state data, and implementing the enablement state decisions. An apparatus for managing an energy consuming load in a group of energy consuming loads, includes a transmitter, a receiver, a processor for processing sets of load state data to make an enablement state decision for the load, and a controller for implementing the enablement state decision. A method for managing an enablement state of an energy consuming load, comprises assigning an assigned duty cycle to the load, determining a load enabled utilization value for the load, and adjusting the assigned duty cycle using the load enabled utilization value.
The demand limiting techniques are a widely known method of reducing electricity cost but the existing techniques for demand limiting may face challenges in sectors like commercial buildings, retail buildings, hotels, restaurants and so on. Some of the existing systems may not include an aspect of real-time monitoring of the system based on which the demand limiting may either performed or avoided. Also, some of the existing systems may not include the aspect of adjusting one or parameters associated with the demand limiting depending on the monitoring. Also, the existing conventional systems may be ineffective because it may result in higher utility costs for consumers. This is primarily because of impact on consumer due to load curtailment activities involving HVAC, lighting and a combination of systems. The consumer satisfaction parameter typically outweighs potential cost benefits derived from demand limiting.